


Satellite of Love

by eclecticanarchist



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 04:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14300310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eclecticanarchist/pseuds/eclecticanarchist
Summary: AKA the "you live in my apartment building and my roommate kicked me out for the night" au.





	Satellite of Love

**Author's Note:**

> I am a fool. A cheesy, cliched fool :P
> 
> Title from the Lou Reed song

Dinah Madani was the best roommate a man could ask for on all but a few points. She was clean and tidy, shared her collection of nice smelling lotions and candles, and didn’t leave dishes in the sink. The fact that their work schedules were also the same meant there was never any issue of multiple alarms. He showered in the morning, she showered at night. It was the perfect system.

The only drawback of having Dinah as a roommate was a real doozy: she didn’t like having him in the apartment when she had special friends over. At this point, Sam was used to getting tossed out of his own apartment so she could get it on. But that didn’t mean he had to like it, damn it. Most of the time it was fine, he just found a late night diner or bar and hunkered down until Dinah sent him the all clear.

Tonight, however was different. Tonight it was raining. And Dinah had been in such a hurry to get him out before her tall, dark, and handsome guest made it up the stairs he’d been unable to grab his wallet or his phone. To make it worse, this guy, a real pretty boy charmer with slicked back hair and a fancy suit had the gall to wink at Sam and give him a smug smirk as Dinah led him into the apartment. 

He was stuck in the hallways of his apartment building for the foreseeable future thanks to the torrential rain and without anything to do thanks to his rude ass roommate who was whip-smart and attractive and had guys over all the time because she was so gorgeous and vibrant and ugh… Maybe that’s what bugged Sam the most. He resented Dinah for her active love life because he was in the longest dry-spell of his life since junior year of high school.

Things hadn’t ended well with his last boyfriend, and he never really got back into the dating scene after that. He just didn’t have time or patience for it all. All he wanted was to find a nice someone and just have things click, and not have to worry about their text response time or the real meaning behind their instagram post. He just wanted things to be simple and good and hey it wouldn’t hurt if he got laid either. So basically, he wanted an established relationship without being willing to do the work of finding someone to be in a relationship with. Totally not unrealistic at all. 

Sam slid down the door to his apartment with a sigh, silently begrudging every single rom com in existence for promising the impossible, that a handsome, empathetic stranger would just come waltzing into his life and sweep him off his feet. A piece of furniture thudded to the ground inside of the apartment, followed by a breathy moan, and Sam plunged his head into his hands. 

“You alright?” the voice was rough, deep in a way that went straight to Sam’s gut. He looked up from his hands to see one of his neighbors from the next floor up standing awkwardly on the landing, grocery bags clutched to his chest. Sam knew him by sight, if not by name. From the dog tags around his throat and the general way he carried himself, he was definitely ex-military. He was handsome in a scruffy grumpy kind of way, always wearing muted colors, leather boots, and a dark frown. 

“Uh, yeah,” Sam rejoined, running a hand self-consciously through his curls. “My roomate’s got a friend over, she ah- she kicked me out, that’s all” Just at that moment something else crashed to the floor inside of the apartment, followed by an enthusiastic grunt. Sam winced, only to catch his neighbor doing the same. He offered a small smile. “My name’s Sam.”

“Frank,” the taller man nodded, then paused consideringly. “Want to come up for a bit? Until your roomate’s finished? It’s not much but, better than the hallway.” Sam stared up at the stranger. Would he really rather spend his time with this heavily muscled man he’d never spoken to before than spend a night napping in a drafty hallway? Before he had time to finish that thought, Sam was struggling to his feet, accepting Frank’s hand as help up.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, that’d actually be great. As long as it's not any trouble?” 

“No trouble at all,” Frank said, a soft smile peeking out from behind his bushy beard.

\---

The next time Sam sees Frank he’s been booted to the hallway again - the same swanky-suited playboy as before - but this time he’d grabbed his phone off the kitchen counter before he’d been shoved out of the door. Frank is walking up the stairs, his dog’s leash fisted tightly in his hand as he nods his greeting to Sam. His eyes flick to Sam standing in front of his locked door with a glum look on his face and he chuckles.

“Dinah kick you out again?” he asks, eyes darting away from Sam’s. 

“She’s impossible,” Sam whined. “An amazing woman, but absolutely impossible.

“Want to come upstairs again?” 

“As long as Max doesn’t mind,” Sam dipped down to offer a hand for the beat up pit bull to sniff at, grinning up at Frank. Frank smiled again, and this time, the expression didn’t flee from his face. It lingered as he looked at Sam scratching his dog behind the ears, and Max actually letting him. If Sam flushed at the weight of his gaze, he could blame the headrush. 

\---

Their first kiss was on Frank’s couch. Madani and her Prada boy toy were at it for the third time this week but right then, Sam really couldn’t be assed to care. They were sitting and talking, beers in hand and Lou Reed in the background and at that moment, Sam was so incredibly content he didn’t care about anything but being there with Frank. They’d gotten closer over the past week, talking about work, Sam’s family (they skirted around Frank’s, it was a story for another time) and friends. At some point, the distance between them shrunk, and then it vanished, as suddenly Sam was pressed close against Frank’s broad chest, hand splayed across the front of his tank top, and Frank’s lips was dipping toward his own. 

It wasn’t bad, as first kisses go. Sam’s teeth might have bumped Frank’s lips and their noses might have collided with a little too much force, but there was something extraordinary about it all the same. Something that sang of promise. 

\--- 

The next day, Frank was waiting for Sam in the hallway when he got home from work, leaning casually against the wall. He grinned at Sam. 

“Is your roommate home?” he asked, raising one eyebrow at Sam. Sam grinned in return, stepping forward to greet Frank with a kiss. 

“Oh I think she is, funny that,” he said, keeping his tone light. “Shall we return the favor? See how she likes being locked out for the night?”

“Sounds good to me,” Frank replied, hand tracing down Sam’s side as he reached to knock on the door.


End file.
